The IBJJF Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championships were held in Kissimmee, Florida this year. The heavyweight bracket for master 6 black belt fluctuated up and down in the weeks leading up to the event as competitors considered what weight class to compete in. It settled down to four people including myself.
My first match was against a 5th degree black belt out of Las Vegas.
We ended up with a tied score of one advantage each.
The referee’s decision went my way I believe due to my constant attempts to score, with few retreats.
The next match was the final. I had faced this opponent before and knew it would be a challenge. It was a long match and probably boring for any spectator, but we were fighting hard to get anything going. In the end it was 0-0-0 for both of us and the referee’s decision did not go my way. My opponent and I discussed it after and we agreed that it was probably his attempt at a punch choke while in my closed guard that sealed it. Congrats to him!
Seven people signed up for the open division. The first match for me was scheduled to be against my opponent from the semi-final at heavyweight. I figured he signed up to try and prove that he should have won the referee’s decision earlier. The brackets were posted for about an hour. I went down and warmed up. He stayed seated in the stands. He remained there until he was disqualified for a “no show”. Very strange behavior.
The open division semi-final was against another very experienced opponent. He got the take down, but I went to turtle. Eventually he took my back for four points. I was able to get back to a guard position and attempt one sweep for which I received an advantage. I ended up losing 4-3-0 to 0-1-0. He went on to face and beat my heavyweight finals opponent from earlier. Congrats to both of them!